1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to demonstrations of products offered for sale, and more particularly to systems and methods to effect sales demonstrations of products.
2. Description of the Related Art
Products are often made in a variety of models, each having more or less components that offer different features and operational modes. Cars and computers, for example, often have dozens of configurations across the same product line. Household appliances are manufactured in a large variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, and with many different operating features. Vendors of these products typically employ sales persons to demonstrate the various features of a product to potential purchasers.
Manufacturers often make demonstration models of their products for the express purpose of enabling customer demonstrations of the features that the manufacturer wishes to highlight. A demonstrational or demo home appliance not available for purchase may be semi-functional, built to look the same as a production line appliance, but missing many operational elements. For example, a demonstration oven might have the capability to guide a user through an input sequence for specifying cooking temperature and cooking time, but no heat elements would be included in the demo oven. Because demo appliances are not constructed with the same elements and functionality as a production line appliance, the two versions of the appliance must be manufactured separately, which complicates the manufacturing process and adds costs.
It is also known to incorporate software into a product that will cause the product to go into a demonstration mode in order to show selected features of the product. For example, a television might be instructed to play a demonstration video while showing different features of a built-in audio system. Home appliances are sometimes manufactured so that they may be operated in a demo mode. In such cases, it is known to upload or change embedded demonstration software in a product such as an appliance as demonstration needs change. But too often, the needs of a sales demonstration far exceed the capability of built-in software to accommodate them.
It is also known for a manufacturer to hard-code a demo mode into a product such as an appliance before shipping the product to a vendor. Demonstrations are thus not tailored to target the needs of each individual vendor, and promotional offers, which only last a short amount of time, cannot be included in the demonstrations. In rare instances, a computer can be connected to the appliance to alter the programming. However, this involves disassembling the appliance and/or re-writing the code, necessitating the involvement of experienced mechanics and/or programmers. As this consumes excessive time and resources, most demo appliances are simply discarded when the demonstration becomes outdated.